MUSIC SCENE: Jerry Marotta's in town with Security Project

Friday

Mar 7, 2014 at 12:00 AM

The Security Project began as an attempt to mark the 30th anniversary of Peter Gabriel's “Security” album in 2012, with several rock veterans, including drummer Jerry Marotta, who'd played with Gabriel's band for a decade.

By Jay N. MillerFor The Patriot Ledger

What started out as a one time salute to an iconic 1982 album has developed into one of the more popular and unique bands on the music scene.

The Security Project began as an attempt to mark the 30th anniversary of Peter Gabriel’s “Security” album in 2012, with several rock veterans, including drummer Jerry Marotta, who’d played with Gabriel’s band for a decade. The Security Project is currently on a 14-date tour of the northeast, with stops in Boston at the Hard Rock Cafe on Monday night, and at the Met Cafe in Pawtucket on Thursday. In between those local gigs next week, they swing through Connecticut, playing Toad’s Place in New Haven on Tuesday, and Infinity Hall in Norfolk on Wednesday.

The Security Project includes Marotta, who performed with Gabriel from 1977 to 1986 as band leader, Trey Gunn, ex-King Crimson bassist and guitarist, David Jameson on keyboards, and multi-instrumentalist Fuzzbee Morse, whose background includes stints with Lou Reed and Jaco Pastorius, on guitar, keyboards, sax and flute.

“Trey Gunn, from King Crimson, is a good friend of mine, and he wanted to do it, and basically talking to him convinced me,” said Marotta, as the band traveled to a Syracuse show this week. “Most importantly, it is fun, exciting, fantastic music. I found myself drumming behind this great band every night, playing this incredible music, and getting more and more into it.”

When Marotta is enthused about music, you can bet it is a well-reasoned assessment. He was a member of folk-rockers Orleans from 1975 to 1982, played with Gabriel from ‘77 to ‘86, became part of Hall & Oates’ band from ‘79-81, backed The Indigo Girls from ‘91-99, and since ‘95 has performed as part of jazz-rock fusion star Tony Levin’s band.

“Mostly that’s because of the unusual way we recorded it back in the day,” Marotta explained. “Peter never came into the studio with a finished form, but rather bits and pieces of things he wanted to explore. Lots of days we’d just get together and jam in the studio until we had something he liked. It was an interesting way to develop material, to say the least.”

About the time Security Project got off the ground, Gabriel himself was touring and celebrating the 25th anniversary of his hit “So” album, and concentrating on music from that period and onward. In other words, the vast trove of music he’d done more recently, but not much if any of the treasure chest of music from his early years as a solo act, and his Genesis years.

“We choose music Peter doesn’t play, quite simply,” said Marotta. “I always loved some of these tunes, like ‘San Jacinto,’ ‘Wallflower,’ ‘Family In Fish Net’ and ‘Heat.’ That music is so interesting, almost bizarre and not like rock exactly. But there’s no question this music should be out there. And of course we knew Peter was touring on his ‘So’ material, and doing nothing from ‘Security.’ We all felt there was a lot of other material, on his first four albums – including my first with him – that needed to be played.”

You have to wonder if this band has to re-arrange the music at all, when they play small clubs like these, instead of the stadiums and arenas fans are used to hearing Gabriel in.

“We haven’t needed any changes in the arrangements yet,” said Marotta. “When I played with Peter, we played places like the Paradise in Boston, and he built it up gradually to the level of the Orpheum. When we do our Canadian leg of this tour we’re playing theaters. But whether we’re playing those or before a few hundred fans, like last night in Buffalo, these musicians deliver it powerfully, and we feel very connected to people. It’s been a big kick to see people who probably came out to see Peter 35 years ago, and maybe bring their kids today. It’s an amazing experience for us, to see the audience response to this music.”

Marotta also noted that Fuzzbee Morse has a solid connection to Boston, since he was almost-but-not-quite a Car.

“Fuzzbee was in a band in Boston with Ric Ocasek, Ben Orr, Greg Hawkes and those guys,” said Marotta. “He left Boston and moved to Los Angeles, and shortly afterwards they all became the Cars. Fuzzbee went on to play in Lou Reed’s band.”

The Security Project started out with Rochester (N.Y.) native Josh Gleason on vocals, but as Marotta explained, Gleason is a family man with a day job and couldn’t tour as much as the band’s schedule demanded. They have found Liverpool native Brian Cummins to take the vocalist role, and he’s got both the Gabriel-tone of voice, as well as the perfect accent.

“We keep building on our set,” said Marotta. “We have five or six songs that we interchange throughout the set, inserting one here, or another one there, to keep it fresh. People are happy with the songs we do, telling us this is music that they haven’t heard Peter do for years.”

“There hasn’t been any direct feedback from Peter himself,” Marotta noted. “Fuzzbee was at a birthday party for Paul Allen, the Microsoft tycoon, and Peter was there so he told him about it. He said Peter was excited by the idea, happy to have us honoring his music, and glad to have it being performed by a band of great musicians he knew.”

‘The Voice’ and local lights

The TV show “The Voice” boasted more local interest last Monday, as Braintree’s Brendan Ryan got his turn in the spotlight. Ryan did a cover of Beyonce’s “Love On Top,” for his number, and while country star Blake Shelton had his hand tantalizingly over the button, he never did hit the ‘I want you’ device, so Ryan did not qualify for the show. Ryan has since posted a Youtube video, vowing to push on with his music career and saying the TV show edited out a much longer session after he sang, where the four judges were all very supportive. Hearing Ryan several times at Paddy Barry’s in Quincy we’ve been impressed with his fearlessness, both in choosing unconventional tunes and in taking big vocal chances. Amid the sea of bland cover acts in the suburbs, his bold approach, and his fine voice (and falsetto) indicate this won’t hold him back for long.

Another contestant whose audition a couple weeks back got her on “The Voice” was Hanson’s Kristin Merlin, and it seems her appearance at the weekly Sunday afternoon blues jam last week at Players Pub in Rockland created a traffic jam in the club. Merlin even went out to the parking lot to sing for the fans who couldn’t get into the sold out venue.

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